Two months after a Fairfax County woman was killed by a speeding car driven onto the sidewalk near her home, her White House colleagues and husband have set up a scholarship to honor her.
Samantha Jennings-Jones was born 37 years ago today in South Korea. Two months later, she was adopted by a Maryland couple.
“As a child, she was precocious,” said her husband, Jon Libbersmeier. “She was very opinionated but she always had her eyes on her own personal prize and was always working toward those goals and she just kind of charted her own path.”
That path took her to the University of Maryland and eventually to the Coast Guard as an employee specializing in cybersecurity. That led her to a position with what’s known as the White House Office of the National Cyber Director. Her task was creating and implementing a new cybersecurity plan.
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As a child, her favorite show was “The West Wing.” Going to work at the White House every day was her dream job.
“She was beaming with pride, and I was so proud of her, too,” Libbersmeier said. “She was so energized and invigorated to be working on that level of stuff. She really enjoyed being close to the flagpole, as we say in the government.”
Every day, he puts flowers at the site along Richmond Highway where she was struck while walking from a store March 30.
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“It’s devastating to go from this perfect life with your partner and my person to this life-sized void where your future and your optimism is just gone,” Libbersmeier said tearfully.
Jennings-Jones’ coworkers and the couple’s friends provide him with support.
He also found solace in a personal call from President Joe Biden, who lost his wife and baby daughter in a crash decades ago.
“His words, that was the first time since the accident that something kind of resonated with me and made me feel a little bit like somebody understood,” Libbersmeier said.
When her boss asked Libbersmeier what they could do to help, he asked if a scholarship would be possible. It was immediately created in her name to help women start or advance a career in cybersecurity.
“Sam was all about girl power and about professional women,” Libbersmeier said. “And for me, personally, it’s nice to see something that will carry on.”
The goal for the scholarship is to raise $50,000. Already, $27,000 has been donated.
On the day Jennings-Jones would have turned 37, her husband said he would gather with friends and colleagues to raise a toast and remember these words he put in her obituary: “In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
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